Getting Student Feedback: Why?!

As adults, who doesn’t enjoy the chance to share your opinion and give honest feedback to places or people you encounter? Most of us eat that opportunity up. If you don’t believe me, look at Yelp. It was made possible by those of us who want to desperately share feedback. If adults love that chance, then what about kids?

This year, I have made it a point to basically beg each and every student for what they think. At first, I chalked this up to me being a first-year teacher and just needing to know for next year. After a year of it, this is something I will intentionally do every single year.

The biggest motivator in my classroom are my students. If it’s not beneficial for them or they aren’t getting anything out of it, then I don’t want it in my classroom. Is this spoiling them? Not in my eyes. Instead, it’s providing them with the support, guidance, and learning that best suits them. After all, they are the reason why we are there in the first place, so why not ask them what helps them?

After most lessons or experiences in my classroom, I like to have a debriefing session. This doesn’t take much longer than 5-10 minutes of our time and gives me TONS of feedback. I start by asking students to tell me if they liked it or they didn’t. With a quick show of hands, this part is done. Then, I want specifics. I tell them it’s pointless just to tell me they liked it or they didn’t. I want to know the WHY. We will share this aloud and I give any student who doesn’t want to share aloud the chance to write down their opinions if necessary. There will be activities where I’m like oh goodness, never again. They all hated it. They have also told me there are activities that they want to again & these I know to try again the next year!

Tips:

• Make sure they know it’s okay to share their HONEST opinion. I tell them they don’t lose points for disagreeing with me. It’s okay to not like everything.
• Be sure to offer a place to submit it anonymously. Kids can be shy and not want to verbally share.
• Ask them for opinions before doing certain things. This saves wasted class time.
• Ask them how to change a lesson to make it more beneficial for them. They have amazing ideas that need to be shared more!
• Be genuine when asking. Don’t ask for the feedback and never do anything with it. The students pick up on this and can hold a grudge if you never fix anything or try their ideas out.

Treat students with respect, and they will give it back to you on most occasions. Give them the chance to share their views, ideas, opinions, etc. and they will remember that. Feedback is crucial for us as educators and I will for sure be keeping this routine every year.